U.S. Senator to Introduce Bill for Advanced Healthcare Payments in the wake of Change Healthcare Hack

A U.S. Senator plans to propose a bill following the hacking of UnitedHealth’s tech division, Change Healthcare.

Reuters reported on the 9th that Democratic Senator Mark Warner plans to introduce a bill to expedite and advance payments to healthcare providers after Change Healthcare was hacked.

In a statement, Warner said, “This attack shows that we need to prepare a backup plan against hacking,” and revealed plans to “introduce a bill that provides accelerated and advanced payments to protect against future chaos with meeting minimum cybersecurity standards.”

On February 21, Change Healthcare was cyber-attacked by a hacking group called “Black Cat,” known as ALPHV.

Following this, the U.S. government announced that it would accelerate Medicare and Medicaid (U.S. medical assistance system for low-income and disabled people under 65) payments to some hospitals affected by the hacking.

UnitedHealth Group also announced that it expects to restore the suspended service for the medical billing and payment platform by mid-March.

Change Healthcare processes about 50% of medical claims for approximately 900,000 doctors, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals, and 600 labs in the U.S. This healthcare technology provision affects about one-third of U.S. patient records.